View full sizeNarissa Carthy-Dundas hugs her dog, Sascha, in her St. Johns home.Casey Parks/The Oregonian

Narissa
Carthy-Dundas used to save her money for a drum kit. But last year,
still plenty shy of her dream set of snare and hi-hat, the 9-year-old
set her sights on a higher cause.

She
approached her parents one day after school. Georgia, their “112 in dog
years” miniature Daschund, had recently passed away, and Narissa had
animals on the brain.

“I
want to raise money for The Pongo Fund,” she told them. The Portland
nonprofit gives pet food to low-income families to feed their cats and
dogs.

Christmas
and birthday money only goes so far, so Narissa brainstormed other ways
to make money. She doesn’t get an allowance, though she does plenty of
chores. “I’m not boasting,” she said. “But if I try really hard, I can
make a bed look like a hotel.” She considered starting a lemonade stand.
“But I heard on the radio you need a license for that,” she said.

Then
one evening, sitting in front of her bookshelf stocked with Roald Dahl,
Beverly Cleary and the Dear America historical fiction series for
girls, Narissa struck upon her first business idea. She began making and
selling customized bookmarks last year. All proceeds go The Pongo Fund.

Narissa
has arresting blue eyes, dark hair to her elbows and a precocious
interest in most things. She keeps half a dozen journals, one of which
is a retelling of Harry Potter in the voice of Hermione. Her St. Johns
bedroom features the requisite cat and horse posters of a tween girl,
but she also has an extensive antique paper doll collection and a
still-in-the-box Lucille Ball Barbie doll.

So
her family wasn’t surprised when she pitched the bookmark idea. Too
many people have Kindles and iPads these days, she explained. A bookmark
would raise money and remind people that real books still exist.

“We’re
kind of a Luddite family,” father, Noah Dundas, said. “We like to do
weird things like go to the library and open up the book return and just
smell the books.”

To
create the bookmarks, she prints off a picture of the purchaser’s pet
(if they have one). She combines it with origami paper, ribbon and
stickers and then glues the collage onto recycled cardboard (usually an
old macaroni box).

Each
one takes a little over an hour to make. Her mother’s friends placed
about 40 orders in Narissa’s first month making them. At times, she
wished she had more time to just read. But then she thought about the
pets and the hundreds of owners who line up each Sunday to receive food
for their cats and dogs. The wait can take hours. If they could
sacrifice their time, so could she.

“Actually,”
Narissa said one afternoon, petting a big, white disabled German
Shepherd. “Sascha here gets food from them sometimes.”

Sascha
came to the family’s door last summer during a thunderstorm. They took
her to the vet and found that a neighbor owned her but couldn’t take
care of her. The dog is calm and affectionate, especially toward Narissa.

The Pongo Fund

Narissa Carthy-Dundas is not taking bookmark orders from the general public but encourages others to join her in assisting The Pongo Fund. All donations to the Portland nonprofit are tax-deductible.

Still,
her parents worried about taking in another dog. Narissa’s mother,
Noraleigh Carthy, is a full-time student. Narissa’s father suffers from
inclusion body myositis, a severe, degenerative muscular disease that
has left him unable to work. But Sascha had nowhere else to go, and the
family took her in.

So
far, Narissa has raised a little over $500 for The Pongo Fund. Last
fall, the nonprofit invited her to read Albert Schweitzer’s poem “A
Prayer for the Animals” to bless its new building.

Her
order book is empty right now. Her next birthday isn’t until October.
But she’ll keep raising money for the animals. That drum set will have
to wait.